(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing reduced iron and method for manufacturing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing reduced iron and method for manufacturing the reduced iron whereby efficiency for manufacturing reduced iron can be enhanced.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In a smelting reduction process, reduced iron and coal are charged into a melter-gasifier to smelt the reduced iron and manufacture molten irons. The reduced iron charged into the melter-gasifier is manufactured by reducing iron ores with a reducing gas.
The iron ores may be reduced in a fluidized bed reduction reactor or a packed bed reduction reactor. The iron ores are preheated before being charged into a fluidized bed reduction reactor or a packed bed reduction reactor. When the iron ores are preheated, the moisture contained in the iron ores can be removed in advance. Thus, before being charged into a fluidized bed reduction reactor or a packed bed reduction reactor, the iron ores may be prevented from being stuck to each other due to moisture while being stored, discharged, and fed. Further, the iron ores may be prevented from being attached to the interiors of an ore storing device, an ore discharging device, or an ore feeding device. In addition, since the energy necessary for drying iron ores may be reduced after the dried iron ores are charged into the reduction reactor, a smaller amount of reducing gas can be used to convert (reduce) the iron ores into reduced iron.
In particular, fine ores are directly used in a fluidized bed reduction reactor. Thus, the above-mentioned adhesion problem and attachment problem can cause severe operational troubles.
Therefore, there has been a demand for an ore drying apparatus which requires more energy to dry fine ores which are fed into reduction reactor, compared to the energy which is required to dry preliminarily dried ores.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.